Frozen sauerkraut causes rush hour motorway chaos in Germany

A German autobahn came to a sudden standstill when tonnes of pickled cabbage fell from the back of a lorry and quickly froze in the sub-zero temperatures.

Sauerkraut is a famous German delicacy (Picture: STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)

It happened after a truck carrying hundreds of bags of the fermented delicacy smashed into another vehicle causing the contents of the truck to scatter across the German motorway near Frankfurt.

The sauerkraut, made famous for inspiring the derogatory German term Kraut, used by British forces during WW1, quickly turned into impassable blocks of ice causing a major headache for motorists in the area.

Vehicles were stuck in tailbacks stretching over 16 km for up to 12 hours as police attempted to clean up the affected area by scooping up the frozen mess from the tarmac and clear the crash wreckage.

‘The road had to be salted so that the sauerkraut could be taken off,’ said a police spokesman.

Sauerkraut remains a popular dish in Germany after it was first introduced to Europe from China round 1,000 years ago.